Copyright 1999 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
June 15, 1999, Tuesday, FIVE STAR LIFT
EDITION
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A8
LENGTH: 410 words
HEADLINE:
SUPREME COURT WILL RULE ON USE OF TAX MONEY FOR RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS
BYLINE: The Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
The Supreme Court said Monday it will decide whether computers and
other instructional materials paid for with taxpayer money can be used by
religious schools.
The court's parochial-aid decision in a Louisiana
case could affect the national debate over school vouchers - financial help from
the government for families whose children attend religious and other private
schools. The ruling, expected sometime in 2000, also may determine the scope of
federal efforts to connect every American classroom to the Internet.
A
New Orleans-based federal appeals court struck down a federal program last year
by ruling that the providing of educational materials other than textbooks for
religiously affiliated elementary and secondary schools
violates the constitutionally required separation of government and religion.
The same program, which makes federal money available through local
school districts, was upheld by a San Francisco-based federal appeals court.
The Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and
State said the 14-year-old Louisiana case "is likely to be the most important
church-state lawsuit to come before the Supreme Court in over two decades."
Lawyers for parents of children in religiously affiliated schools in
Louisiana said the case "involves the vital interests of American schoolchildren
in obtaining access to modern technological equipment and materials."
Overall, the federal government provides about 7 percent of the money
states spend on education. That percentage is significantly higher in poorer
states.
The federal program at issue is authorized by the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which gives
public schools money for special services and instructional equipment. Public
school districts are required to share the equipment in a "secular, neutral and
nonideological" way with students enrolled in private schools within their
boundaries.
More than 70 percent of the students who benefit from the
program attend public schools, but many of the rest attend religiously
affiliated schools. In Jefferson Parish, La., 41 of 46 private schools
participating in the federal program are religiously affiliated.
Three
Jefferson Parish taxpayers sued federal, state and local officials in 1985.
Their suit says the federal program was unlawful under the Constitution's First
Amendment. Parents of children in religious schools intervened in the case to
defend the program.
LOAD-DATE: July 15, 1999
